Em( )ment
The body is a temple / old house / balloon
visions of self/future/health always getting stuck in the attic / helium / throat
And the spirits / cobwebs / voices won’t let them sink down any lower
The body never arrives / dies / lives because it is already here / dead / invisible
With toes / talons / notions gripping the present / past / future
While your lightheaded skull is still stuck in yesterday / age 13 / age 16 / age 2
When you first found out about death / love /sex and that it leaves bodies behind
And were terrified / curious / surprised enough to call the front desk
And request early / late check out
Decapitation and dissociation are the same
If you never know a body, you will never have to miss it / feel it / name it
But you can still spend a whole afternoon thinking about the backs of your knees /appendix/ tonsils / spare parts
You can think of them without ever knowing them
Thinking and Knowing are not the same
A body can be reclaimed / reborn / renamed
You can crawl into your own / someone else’s skin
Feel your fingers / hands / palms spread cool gel across your / their shins
Placing arnica / ice / kisses over the resulting bruises
The skin
That is just one continuous organ / map / chamber folding over to meet its own parts
I love this poem! So creative, the use of “/” and other options. I think that’s very clever and so effective! For example, “The body is a temple / old house / balloon
visions of self/future/health always getting stuck in the attic / helium / throat
And the spirits / cobwebs / voices won’t let them sink down any lower”
And I really also love “The body never arrives / dies / lives because it is already here / dead / invisible
With toes / talons / notions gripping the present / past / future”
and “But you can still spend a whole afternoon thinking about the backs of your knees /appendix/ tonsils / spare parts”. I’ll come back to this poem (if I can find it, I’ll have to make a note of the title and your handle) because I think it’s brilliant!